Delegation: Push through Tongass forest plans
Environmental groups are on guard this week about a possible effort by Alaska's congressional delegation to limit appeals of Tongass National Forest management plans.
U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said Thursday he is exploring language to "speed implementation" of the Tongass Land Management Plan so the timber industry and Southeast Alaska communities could have certainty and consistency.
"It took 13 years and $12 million to finish the TLMP, heralded as the most comprehensive forest plan ever conducted," he said. "If something isn't done, it will be time to update the forest plan before it is even implemented."
U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, said he would work with Murkowski to see what could be done about Tongass planning.
The timber industry and environmental groups have been in court to criticize or defend the Tongass management plan since it was completed in 1997. The U.S. Forest Service now is working on a court-ordered supplemental environmental impact statement that studies the Tongass for new wilderness designations. A series of hearings on the proposal were conducted throughout Southeast Alaska this summer.
A draft plan from the Forest Service recommended no new wilderness on the Tongass. The final decision would be up to Congress.
A draft amendment to the Interior Department appropriations bill, obtained by environmental groups this week, says the TLMP record of the decision and supplemental environmental impact statement on wilderness "shall not be reviewed under any Forest Service administrative appeal process, and its adequacy shall not be subject to judicial review by any court of the United States."
Murkowski press secretary Chuck Kleeschulte said a variety of things were under discussion about Tongass issues, but he wouldn't elaborate.
"That language has been talked about, but probably wouldn't be the language in the final amendment," he said.
Tim Bristol of Juneau, director of a group of conservation, sporting and religious organizations called the Alaska Coalition, described the draft amendment as an ill-conceived rider handed out to special interests.
"To have some kind of amendment or rider now that short-circuits the process is a slap in the face to the people who spoke up on this issue," he said from Washington, D.C.
Murkowski and Stevens also have been working on legislation to allow the Forest Service to speed up the removal of trees killed by spruce bark beetles from the Chugach National Forest. The trees are a hazard because they could fuel serious wildfires, they have said.
Joanna Markell can be reached at joannam@juneauempire.com.